An organisation is created when people with different talents come together to create something more than they can achieve alone. Organisations have many elements which must be balanced to get a harmonious outcome.
When trying to achieve our outcomes, we need to answer the following questions:
What’s really going on here? This is to make sure we have a good, clear understanding of the elements at play and their significance in what we are seeking to achieve. Boundaries may be confused, things may be hidden from our view or missing, the significance of some elements may be misunderstood or relationships may not be working.
What do I do next? This is to determine whether you are dealing with conflicting priorities by making good choices. There are often many actions we can take, but certain things will have different interaction effects. What will be a good move that will strengthen the whole system and bring harmony and leverage?
It has become increasingly obvious to me that we need to find new, highly leveraged ways to address issues that arise in organisational life. Highly complex issues and short timelines require insightful ways to weigh options, make decisions and take actions that will lead to good outcomes.
Think about how we can get clarity and commitment within a group to respect and honour the things they need to take into consideration. How do we ensure that we see things for what they are, so we can realize their true value to our collective enterprise? What is required that enables the people we need to engage fully? How do we get members to recognise if they are not needed? We want all members to have an aligned internal picture so that, at a deeper level, there are collective and individual forces moving them towards a common vision.
Often, when initiatives are taken to address organisational issues, hidden forces within the system arise and derail what has been initiated, despite everyone’s interest and commitment. Think of the times you have undertaken to do something, and you were genuinely committed, only to find that other demands won the day. It is as if some force within the system had to prevail, even if it stopped us creating what we want. If those hidden forces can be revealed and addressed, people are able to act more effectively. This brings the people and forces that constitute the organisation into alignment, producing flow.
System Dynamics
Examining system dynamics requires us to observe the system as if we are separate from it. This separate perspective is one of the reasons we have boards of directors, especially independent directors. It is also why diversity is encouraged, along with the use of independent consultants. However, we can lose something in this process, because it is easy to make recommendations from the outside which don’t take the forces inside the system into account. We find that when we emerge ourselves in the system, under the forces involved, it is a different story. It’s always helpful to have ‘walked in others shoes’ and know things from their perspective, too. With this work, we seek to respect and include both perspectives and find a realistic, helpful solution. The greatest wisdom is actually found within the system. If people within the system can develop this capacity to move between the perspectives of participants and observers, then the wisdom in the system can be realised.
Healthy system dynamics requires that all the elements of the system work in good relationship with each other. This results in momentum and flow, moving towards what is intended. If anything gets disturbed, the system will reveal that by resistance or opposition. It is as if the system is calling out for someone to attend to the disturbance, but if we ignore it, it just escalates the issue. Theories of system dynamics can be applied to any system, simple or complex.
Systemic Constellations
With this in mind, as I was exploring new ways of working, I discovered organisational systemic constellations. A constellation, in this case, means the positioning of elements in relationship to each other to examine their interactive effects. It is used to reveal forces at play in the system which need to be seen and respected, whilst at the same time discovering the steps towards a good solution. It is one of the many potent processes which draws strongly on the principles of system dynamics in organisations.
The challenge for anyone who wants the benefits of this work is their willingness to explore ways of working that are deeply familiar in the body (i.e. a felt sense, that is tapping into a subconscious awareness) but are somewhat unfamiliar within the mind. The body knows what is true because it feels it as a resonance, but the mind can trigger doubt and lead us to refute what our body knows. By suspending judgment long enough to explore the experience you are able to assess its merits and discover the value for yourself.
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